Independent 9,007 by Tees

by

A gentle one from Tees today; gentle at any rate compared with some of the problems he sets. All seemed to fit in quite pleasantly and straightforwardly, although I had some doubts about 8dn until I realised that a train service was transport, and I had to look up 15dn to learn that an impromptu is a speech.

Definitions in italics.

Across
1 DOUBLE-CROSSED
Thus our grid appears to have deceived! (6-7)

2 defs, one of them referring to the fact that the grid of this crossord contains two crosses
10 ENTRUST
Turn over where e-books deteriorate (7)

e-NT rust
11 TRAINEE
Fall that stops Peg finding Green Man? (7)

t(rain)ee — green in the sense naïve, inexperienced
12 RIFLE
Anger engulfing female in Winchester? (5)

ri(f)le
13 ROCHESTER
One peer sends list round about ambassador (9)

ro(c HE)ster — the Earl of Rochester
14 TRAGI
Hair in ear that’s almost disastrous (5)

tragi{c} — the plural of tragus
16 COLLOCATE
Officer and his equal in retreat swallowed lump together (9)

Col. (Col.)rev. ate
18 EYE-OPENER
One peer happy to take unknown drug for revelatory experience (3-6)

(one peer)* round (y E), the anagram being indicated by ‘happy’ in the sense of ‘drunk’
19 RATIO
Spanish banker clutches at relationship (5)

R(at)io — the rio is the Spanish banker [= river], rio being Spanish for river
20 VIDEOTAPE
Record nuts die to use e-cigarette outside (9)

vape [use e-cigarette] outside (die to)*
23 HORSE

Knight runs in leggings (5)

ho(r)se — knight = horse as in chess, although only non-chess-players or young children would call a knight a horse — perhaps I’m missing some other equivalence
24 COALPIT
Topical variation? That’s mine! (7)

(Topical)*
25 INDIANA
Professor Jones cool with divine huntress (7)

in Diana — this from Wikipedia: ‘The third film, 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, … , a scene from Professor Jones’s classroom (he now teaches at Barnett College)’, so this explains why Dr. Jones is a professor
26 SATURDAY NIGHT
Dissolute Dan – guy with a thirst – in time to slake it? (8,5)

(Dan guy a thirst)*
Down
2 OUT-OF-DATE
Lacking partner having spent too long on shelf? (3-2-4)

2 defs
3 BRUCE
Check up on English victor at Bannockburn (5)

(curb)rev. E
4 ESTER
Dumping area in festival’s compound (5)

E{a}ster
5 RETICULAR
As network Resistance gets Lucretia out (9)

R (Lucretia)*
6 STAGE-DOOR
Grades too poor for Cambridge entrance? (5-4)

(Grades too)* — ref The Cambridge Theatre, London WC2 — a magnificent clue: what a surface
7 ERNST
Surrealist in modern style (5)

Hidden in modERN STyle — ref Max Ernst
8 SECRET SERVICE
Anything but public transport for spooks! (6,7)

secret [= anything but public] service [as in a train service]
9 GEORGE FOREMAN
Explosive one from reggae heavyweight (6,7)

(one from Reggae)* — the heavyweight boxer
15 IMPROMPTU
Tees is to provide forgotten words accepted for speech (9)

I’m [= Tees is] prompt [= provide forgotten words] U [= accepted as in U and non-U]
16 CONTACTED
Met‘s lag did time first (9)

con t acted — t comes before acted [= did]
17 AFTERMATH
At the farm produced second crop (9)

(At the farm)*
21 DRAMA
Whisky before a show? (5)

dram a
22 EMILY
Girl takes north-south road through cathedral city (5)

E(M1)ly — the M1 motorway is the north-south road
23 HADJI
Pilgrim diddled Jim – millions removed (5)

had Ji{m}
*anagram

11 comments on “Independent 9,007 by Tees”

  1. Thanks Tees and John for a enjoyable puzzle and helpful blog.
    The term to use an e-cigarette, vape, was new to me, but I remembered the dialect meaning of AFTERMATH from a Rufus crossword last year.
    STAGE-DOOR was a great clue, and DOUBLE-CROSSED, OUT-OF-DATE and SECRET SERVICE, among others, were fun.

  2. Thanks Tees for an enjoyable crossword and John for a good blog.

    I should have known TRAGI, but must have forgotten it (not unusual these days!) Hadn’t noticed the double crosses until I came here.

    Yes, STAGE DOOR was a fabulous clue. I also particularly liked TRAINEE, EYE-OPENER, SATURDAY NIGHT & GEORGE FOREMAN and many others.

  3. Didn’t know, or like Robi must have forgotten TRAGI, and certainly didn’t know COLLOCATE though it was easily got from the wordplay and crossing letters.

    Collins has “chess: an informal name for knight” in the entry for HORSE.

    Thanks, Tees and John.

  5. Thanks, John. Wouldn’t necessarily say ‘gentle’, but I know what you mean. Gettable for a Thursday.

    I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: Tees is a careful setter, and the clue will always, with a bit of head-scratching, get you to the answer without any uncertainty. Once you see it, you know it’s right.

    That said, I was off into chemical bottle territory for WINCHESTER; but SATURDAY NIGHT made me smile because it reminded me of Alan Sillitoe’s novel SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING, which is one of my favourite novels.

    I think HORSE is okay for those not into chess. Looks like a horse whenever I see one.

  6. Apparently it’s chess slang. I wonder what chess slang is though. Would-have-been champions slumped in lonely Wetherspoon alcoves, drunk, resentful, desperate, reliving THAT move, the one that led to disaster … or something. Anyway, horse, there it is.

    Thanks to John/ Wil, and to all commenters. I’m glad you liked 6D: I wish they could all turn out that well.

    Cheers
    Tees

  8. Good puzzle (as ever) but I am posting here to add something to this chess discussion.
    Once again as one from abroad.
    In Holland the chess piece that looks like a horse is called ‘paard’, which is Dutch for ‘horse’.
    Chess slang? Professional chess players (and surely amateurs) over there use that word for it.
    That is, when they’re talking Dutch to each other! [amateurs do]
    Only after I came to the UK I discovered that this chess piece that doesn’t look like a knight was called a knight.
    And the abbreviation of it turned out to be N ……
    [because there are Knights who say Ni?]

  9. In Indian chess, the knight is called ‘ghoda’, Hindi for ‘horse’. For other pieces, see the article in Wikipedia.

  10. @Ex-doc
    According to Wikipedia, ‘tragus’ is the name not only for the small pointed eminence of the external ear, but also the hair that grows on it. Acc. to Chambers, any of the hairs that grow on the external ear is tragus.

Comments are closed.